Family Caregiver Bill of Rights

Family caregiving includes a broad scope of activities. It is not only hands-on personal care, though that can certainly be part of family caregiving. Also included are activities like driving to doctor’s appointments, running errands, cleaning the house, doing laundry, cooking meals, sorting the mail, paying bills, setting up appointments, etc. A primary family caregiver may not be doing all of these activities, but they may oversee the completion of these tasks and arrange to have assistance in these areas.

 

Family caregiving can also happen from a distance when family members are spread out across a province, or even across the continent. Although the caregiver is not physically present all of the time, they feel the primary responsibility for the care of their loved one, and so they are the advocate and spend many hours on the phone or on email arranging help across the country.

 

 

The role of the family caregiver can be incredibly exhausting and sometimes rather lonely. People often do not know where to turn for assistance and attempt to manage everything on their own.

 

Often, this may not be a realistic goal as the care of their loved one may be too demanding for any individual to take on single-handedly, and so to preserve the health and mental wellness of everyone involved, it may be best to enlist the help of others—be it other family and friends, the LHIN, or a private agency. Here at Warm Embrace Elder Care, we advocate for the health and wellness of family caregivers who are often too busy advocating for their loved one to speak for themselves! To further remind family caregivers to always care for themselves, here is a Family Caregiver Bill of Rights:

 

FAMILY CAREGIVER BILL OF RIGHTS:  I HAVE THE RIGHT…

 

To take care of myself. This is not an act of selfishness. It will give me the capability of taking better care of my loved one.


To seek help from others even though my relatives may object. I recognize the limits of my own endurance and strength.


To maintain facets of my own life that do not include the person I care for, just as I would if he or she were healthy. I know that I do everything that I reasonably can for this person, and I have the right to do some things just for myself.


To get angry, be depressed, and express other difficult feelings occasionally.


To take pride in what I am accomplishing and to applaud the courage it has sometimes taken to meet the needs of my loved one.


To protect my individuality and my right to make a life for myself that will sustain me in the time when my loved one no longer needs my full-time help.


To expect and demand that as new strides are made in finding resources to aid physically and mentally impaired persons in our country, similar strides will be made towards aiding and supporting Caregivers.

 

… and most of all, TO BE MYSELF

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